A news feature is a piece of journalism that goes beyond the facts, and tells a story. It takes up a lot more space than a standard news article and it needs to be well-crafted, interesting and creative.
These articles focus on human interest stories, like profiles (biographies of people) or other topics that evoke emotions or teach the audience something. They can also focus on a historical or social setting of events and help the reader to understand what is happening, and why the event provokes reactions as it does.
They are often based on extensive interviews, but can be compiled from other sources as well. They include quotes and other text, graphics and illustrations to give the readers a full picture of the topic. The use of sensory details, and storytelling is essential in a news feature to keep the reader engaged.
This is a very popular type of news feature as it focuses on the personality and character of someone or something, which can be both interesting and entertaining. It explores the background of a person, or group and is usually based on extensive interviews.
This is a very difficult type of news feature to write, and requires the writer to be extremely well informed and skilled. These pieces can attempt to predict future events on the basis of analysis of current information. Care must be taken, however, as uninformed predictions can look stupid! They can also be very useful in introducing readers to parts of the world and to their culture, which would otherwise not be familiar.